Folding machine



P. R. GLASS.

FOLDlNG MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 24. 1920.

Patented Feb. 14, 1922.

PM M w W *uN 'rEo stares PATENT OFFICE.

PERLEY R. GLASS, 0?? WAYLAND, MASSACHUSETTS, A SSIGNOR COMPAINY, 0F BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION To 1*. R. GLASS 0F MASSACHU- FOLDING MACHINE.

Application filed June 24,

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, PnnLnY Grass, a citizen oif'the United States, residing at Wayland, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts have invented certain Improvements in holding lVlachines, or" which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to folding machines and is herein described as embodied in a machine for folding the margin of a piece of leather or similar sheet material which is to be incorporated in boots and shoes.

In the manufacture Of boots and shoes it is customary to fold the margins of certain pieces of upper material such as vainps and tips in order to finish those edges which are exposed in the completed shoe; Various types of machines are used to carry out this folding operation, but all of them, so far as I am aware, comprise some sort of a folder for forming the fold and a hammer or similar member for pressing the fold. Coinmonly a machine of the intermittent teed type is employed whereby the told is progiessively formed and pressed. Such machines are usually provided with a hammer or fold presser which is oscillated about an axis lying substantially parallel to the line of feed of the work, the hammer thus moving in a curved path the plane of which is transverse to that line. With such a construction the flat operative face of the hammer will be parallel with the flat surtace of the anvil or other member which supports the work only in one position of the hammer. It is desirable that this parallel relation should occur when the hammer exerts pres sure upon the work so that the blow of the hammer may fall squarely upon the folded margin; but with former constructions this condition obtains only witha piece of work of a predetermined thickness. ii": the work is thicker or thinner than the predetermined thickness, the operative face of the hammer will be inclined slightly in one direction or the other to the plane of the work support at the time the blow is struck. It has been proposed to use a hammer pivoted about an axis which lies substantially in the plane of the surface 01" the work support and to permit'yielding movement of the hammer trans versely of its pressing face and of the pivot Specification of Letters Patent. Pate ted F b 14 9 1920. Serial No. 391,486;

during the application of the pressure to the roid. Such a construction, howeveigis obectionable because the first strikes the edge of the fold and then rocks about the edge, the result being that too much pressure is applied to the edge. In the discussion given above it has been assumed that the folded margin is of a uniform thickness throughout. It sometimes happens that this" is not the case, the edge being slightly thinner or thicker than the body of the folded margin. In such case the :ace of the hammer during the pressing of the fold should be inclined slightly to the plane of the work support. 7 A

Inorder to provide for these and similar conditions, one of the members, the hammer and anvil, between'which the told is pressed is so constructed and arranged that it'will accommodate itself to the particular folded margin which is being operated upon whether that margin be thick or thin, of uniform or nonuniform thickness and will accommodate itself immediately upon contactwith the work before any appreciable pressure is applied to the fold. In the illustra tive machine the hammer is provided with a swiveled striking plate, the axis about which the plate is swiveled being substantially parallel to the line or" the fold and lying above the folded margin when the hammer is in operative relation to the work. With such a construction the striking plate, as soon as it contacts with the work, as sumes a position such that the pressure which it applies is exerted squarely upon the folded margin.

This and other features of the invention, including certain details of construction and combinations of parts, will be described as embodied in an illustrative machine and pointed outin the appended claims. Referring now to the accompanying draw- 2 7 Fig. l is a perspective view of a portion of a machine in which the present invention is embodied, the viewshowing more particularly the parts ofthe machine which engage the work;

Fig. 2 is another perspective, but from a diii erent angle, showing more particularly the mounting of the feed slide and the ham.- mer, and

Fig. 8 is a section through the hammer, the anvil, and a piece of work.

The illustrative machine, except for cerface of the hammer V hanging arm 13.

the machine oi Patent No. 1,281,000, granted Get. 15, 1918, upon an application tiled in my name; and before pointingout in detail the features of the present invention, the general construction and mode of operation of the machine will be briefly described, making use of the same reference numerals which appear in the patent.

Referring first to Fig. 1, the work, the margin of which is to be folded, is "fed over a work table 12 by means of a hammer 150 and anvil 104 which intermittently grip the work and feed it forward. The edge or" the work runs against a preliminary turning member or plow 80 and underneath a pivoted gage member 32, the margin at that time being turned up a little less than 90. The turned-up margin may then be acted upon if desired by a snipping knife 10. The shipping knife is normally inoperative but may be rendered operative at any time by depressing a treadle (not shown). The snipping knife is thrown into operation only when a concaveiy curved margin is encountered, the purpose being to facilitate the folding of such a margin. work, after passing the knife, whether it is snipped or not, is next bent over the edge of a creaser 90 by a folding finger 80 which rises intermittently, this bending of the margin ser ing to form the fold. The fold, thus formed, is next gripped between the hammer and anvil to press or complete it; and then the hammer and anvil, as stated above, move rearwardly to impart an intermittent feed movement to the work. The knife i0 is mounted at the end of a bent lever a2 which is pivoted .to a stud 4 carried by an overhanging arm 13 which is part of the frame of the machine; and a link 46 connects the bent lever with treadle controlled mechanism not shown herein but fully shown and described in the prior pat ent referred to above. The creaser 90 is carried by a block 92 which in turn is pivotally mounted on a bar 36 also carried by the ovcr- For the details of the mounting of the creaser reference made to the patent.

The mounting of the hammer and the anvil is like that of the machine of the ent but will be described a little more in detail since the improvement of the present block 16 1 and the horizontal arm of which is pivoted to the upper end of link 170.

The swivel block 1% lies between ears 162 formed on the under side of the slide 120, so that oscillation of the bell cranklever 166 causes reciprocation of the slide. In order to cause such oscillation, the lower end of the link 170 has pivoted to it a swivel block 172 which fits in a slot in a cam lever 174, said lever being pivoted at one end on a rod 9 and having at itsother end a fork which embraces an eccentric (not shown) on the driving shaft 16. Treadle controlled means (not shown) are provided for shifting the block 1(2 toward and from the rod 9 to decrease or increase the throw of the bell crank lever 166 and thus to shorten or In order to oscillate the hammer, the following construction is provided. The ham- 1 mer is loosely mounted on the rod 122 and has a depending tail which carries a hollow boss 150 inside of which is slidably mounted a spring-pressed plunger 153. An actuator 152, also loosely mounted on the rod 122, has depending ears. One of these is engaged by the spring-pressed plunger 1523; the other carries a screw which engages the back. of the tail oi: the hammer. It is evident, then. that the angular position of the hammer with respect to the rod 122 depends upon the angular position of the actuator 152 and that oscillation of the actuator will cause oscillation of the hammer. The purpose of the spring plunger 153 is to ensure that the blow struck by the hammer shall be a yielding one. Oscillation oi the actuator 152 is caused through suitable linkage indicated at 157 which is pivotally connected with a cam arm 160 operated by an eccentric 18. No further description 01"? the general construction of the old machine will be given, since the details of its construction form no part of the present invention. It will be understood, however, that the machine operates progressively first to form and then to hammer or press the fold.

In prior folding machines the operative face of the hammer has commonly been rigid or of the objectionable yielding construction, which has been referred to, with the result, for example, that, with the hammer constructed or adjusted to operate satisiactorily upon thin work, if a thick piece of work .is presented to the machine,'the hammer will not strike the fold squarely. In

order to provide for this and similar conditions the head of the hammer 150 is provided with a swiveled strikingplateQOl. This striking plate has formed upon its upper side a rounded rib 203 which-fits in a correspondingly shaped transverse groove in the head of the hammer; and in order to prevent the striking plate from sliding along the groove, the rounded rib 203 and the hammer head have grooves formed in them which register when the parts are properly assembled; and, extending through these grooves, is a locking member in the form of a comparatively weak leaf spring 205 fastened to the hammer head by a screw 207. It will be noted that the axis of the rounded rib 203 is substantially parallel to the line of feed of the work; and that the operative face of the striking plate 201 will therefore accommodate its position in accordance with the folded margin immediately upon contact with the work so as to strike the work squarely whether said margin be thick or thin and whether it be of uniform or non-uniform thickness. By mounting the striking plate in the head of the hammer as described, the axis about which the plate is pivoted lies above the folded margin when the hammer is in operative position, and the striking plate is thereby permitted to tilt either toward or from the edge as may be required. As has been stated, the leaf spring 205 is comparatively weak, being just strong enough to maintain the striking plate normally in the position relative tothe hammer shown in Fig. 3 so that, as the hammer is oscillated, the plate will not rattle. It is not strong enough to oifer any appreciable resistance to angular movement of the plate; and consequently the plate is substantially free to move in either direction about its axis with the result that the moment the plate contacts with the work and before any appreciable pressure is applied, the plate accommodates its position to the particular work being operated upon. As a consequence, there is no objectionable rocking of the plate in a manner to exert more pressure upon one portion of the fold than upon another.

Although the invention has been set forth as embodied in a particular machine in which, for example, the hammer acts to feed the work as well as to press the fold, it should be understood that the invention is not limited in the scope of its application to the particular machine which has been shown and described.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. A machine of the class described, hav' ing in combination, a support for a piece of material, means for forming a fold in the margin thereof, and co-operating members for pressing the fold, one of said members being pivoted and so easily movable in two directions about an axis substantially parallel to the line of the fold that, immediately upon contact with the fold and before any appreciable pressure is applied, the pivoted member will accommodate its position to the shape of the fold.

2. A machine of the class described, having in combination, a support for a piece of u aterial, means for forming a fold in the margin thereof, and eo-operating members for pressing the fold, one of said members being pivoted about an axis located inside the edge of the fold whereby, immediately upon contact with the fold and before any appreciable pressure is applied, the pivoted member will accommodate its position to the shape of the fold.

8. A machine of the class described, having in combination, a support for a piece of material, means for forming a fold in the .margin thereof, and a co-operating hammer and anvil members for pressing the fold, one of said members being pivoted about an axiswhioh, when the members are in pressing relation, lies in a plane substantially perpendicular to the material and inside the edge thereof.

4t. A machineof the class described, having in combination, a support over which the work to be folded is fed, a co-operating creaser and folder for forming. the fold, and a co-operating hammer and anvil for pressing the fold, one of said last-named members having a Work-contacting member adapted to rock in either direction as may be required about an axis which is substantially parallel to the line of the fold.

5. A machine of the class described, havring in combination, a support for a piece of flexible material, means for forming a fold in the margin thereof, and a combined hammer and feed member for pressing the fold and for feeding the material, said hammer including a swiveled striking plate mounted in the head thereof- 6. A machine of the class described, having in combination, asupport over which the material to be folded is fed, meansfor progressively forming a fold in the margin of the material, and means for pressing the fold, said last-named means comprising a hammer having a rounded groove in the head thereof and a striking plate having a rounded rib received in the groove.

7. 1%. machine of the class described, having in combination, a support over which the material to be folded is fed, means for progressively forming a fold in the margin of the material, and means for pressing the fold, said last-named means comprising a reciprocating hammer so constructed and mounted that its head is located at all times above the level of the support, and a striking in combination, a support over which the material to be folded is fed means for progressively forming a fold inthe margin of.

the material, and means for pressing the fold said last-named means comprising a hammer and a striking plate pivoted in the head of the hammer about an axis which is spaced from the ends of the plate to permit either end of the plate to rise While the other descends.

In testimon whereof I have signed my name to this specification PERLEY R oLAss. 

